Tuesday, July 20, 2010

The Rest of The Quote

"The presence of a creative deity in the universe is clearly a scientific hypothesis. Indeed, it is hard to imagine a more momentous hypothesis in all of science." -- Richard Dawkins.

What about the rest of the quote?

"...A universe with a god would be a completely different kind of universe from one without, and it would be a scientific difference."

True -- a universe without a God would not exist. Very little thought would take place. Science would be impossible given the universe's non-existence. The fact that we live in a universe that is subject to something as ordered and rational and empirical as science is, of and by itself, sufficient reason for a rational person to believe in God.

If a universe did happen to exist without God, it would be arational as there would be no Mind to order it or create laws by which it would run. In fact, laws would be an absurdity. Very little science (and by this I mean "no science") would take place in such a universe -- clearly not the universe we inhabit.

"God could clinch the matter in his favour at any moment by staging a spectacular demonstration of his powers, one that would satisfy the exacting standards of science."

And one day He will. It's the Big Reveal. Read all about it in the book of Revelation. Last book in the B-I-B-L-E. Until then, he has structured the universe so that he is hidden from direct sight, but his fingerprints are all over the place -- and we are all accountable to him for the lives we live. We shall all stand before him and give an account for the lives we have lived and whether we turned from him or to him.

"Even the infamous Templeton Foundation recognized that God is a scientific hypothesis — by funding double-blind trials to test whether remote prayer would speed the recovery of heart patients. It didn't, of course, although a control group who knew they had been prayed for tended to get worse (how about a class action suit against the Templeton Foundation?)

This was a bit of a stupid study unless one posits that God is some kind of impersonal force subject to manipulation. God reveals himself in his own way, at his own time, for his own purposes.

"Despite such well-financed efforts, no evidence for God's existence has yet appeared." You mean, apart from a) the existence of the universe itself, b) a fine-tuned universe, c) a regulated universe, d) a life-producing universe, e) man whose image includes consciousness, rationality, creativity, and moral sense, f) the witness of the Hebrew prophets which includes the fore-telling of events (events which have a direct bearing on our lives today, such as the re-birth of the state of Israel, the prospering of the gospel of Christ throughout all the world, and the end-of-the-age conflict involving Israel and surrounding hostile nations), and, of course... g) the death, burial and subsequent resurrection of Christ was his central revealing act.

All the rest is commentary.

Unbelief is not a matter of the mind and too little information for it to process. It is a matter of the will and a bent propensity against God's rule.